How E. coli conservatism infects "liberal" universities with an anti-regulatory bias (TomPaine.com)

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Campus Tainted Meal Plan
Rick Perlstein
May 01, 2007



Rick Perlstein is a blogger for the Campaign for America's Future.

One of the stunning things I've learned since I started studying the assault on food safety is how deeply the E. coli conservatives have been able to infiltrate the so-called liberal universities.

I was researching the career of Lester Crawford (about whom I'll be writing about in depth), the Food and Drug Administration chief for two months in 2005 before it was revealed that he'd lied about his investments in the very drug companies his agency was regulating. Once an idealistic crusader against the use of antibiotics in cattle feed, the former veterinarian had moved farther and farther to the right, and became more and more on the take. By 1999 he was directing a "Center for Food and Nutrition Policy" at Georgetown University, which later moved to Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Sounds like a noble enough outfit, no? Disinsterested scientists, running around in lab coats, devising new and better ways to make us healthier?

Not so. The CFNP is one of the myriad "financially independent" research institutes which, though housed on college campuses, don't follow higher education's traditional standards. The CFNP is heavily funded by the sugar and soft drink industries.

This erosion of the intellectual authority of America's universities is yet another poisoned gift conservatives have bestowed upon us. They are all over the place. Some of them use the name of the university that hosts them in their titles. The "Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development," for example, gets 65 percent of its funding from drug companies.

They're pleased with their investment. Joseph P. Pieroni, CEO of Daiichi Sankyo, Inc., attests on TCSDD's sponsors page:

As a medium-sized, foreign-based pharma firm, we rely heavily on the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development for its scholarly research reports on drug development trends to help us assess our own performance and to understand the current regulatory environment.

Robert Ruffolo of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals praises their "unbiased" work. I'm not so sure.

Sounds great. Luckily, you can become a TCSDD sponsor, too; download this brochure to learn how, or learn how to contact their "Director of Strategic Marketing and Develompent" here.

One of the things you'll be buying is Tufts University's seal of approval for your company's political agenda: Director Kenneth Kaitlin was quoted in the Boston Herald on February 15, 2005, for instance, praising the Bush Administration's appointment of Lester Crawford to head the FDA, quoted alongside critics of the appointment who actually were disinterested, public-spirited experts. (The message: Some food safety mavens agree with the Bush Administration, some disagree; move along, nothing to see.) .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/05/01/campus_tainted_meal_plan.php